Earth-moving apparatus



Feb. 20, 1962 l.. HYLER 3,021,624

EARTH-MOVING APPARATUS 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed NOV. 23, 1959 @nl q, 41; M @M1 M Feb. 2o, 1962 Filed Nov. 25, 1959 L. L. HYLER EARTH-MOVING APPARATUS 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 IN V EN TOR.

#Q1/mwa 3,021,624 EARTH-MVEJG APPARATUS Loiell L Hyler, 4020 W. 116th St., Oak Lawn, Ill. Filed Nov. 23, 1959, Ser. No. 854,775 8 Claims. (Cl. 37--129) The present invention relates to an improved carrytype scraper vehicle such as is commonly used for largescale earth moving and, more particularly, to a novel design for such a scraper vehicle which substantially improves the operating exibility thereof and decreases the cost of earth-moving operations.

The advent of the carry-type scraper Vehicle has greatly speeded up and lowered the cost of earth-moving operations, particularly for such purposes as highway construction, darn site preparation, and the like. Such scraper vehicles normally comprise a scraper bowl or body with supporting frame mounted on wheels, the motive power for which usually comprises a pulling or pushing tractor. One costly operating problem, which has been encountered with such scraper vehicles and which has received considerable study by the earth-moving industry, stems from the fact that the motive power required during the scraping and loading operation far exceeds the power required for rolling the scraper to the unloading or dumping area.

This imbalance in power requirements is aggravated by the fact that the power required for the scraping operation must be adequate to handle extreme peak loads, such loads including the power required for locomotion of a substantially full load as the scraper bowl is filled plus the eak cleaving or cutting loads encountered as the cutting blade of the scraper strikes various obstructions usually encountered in earth-moving operations, e.g., rocks, tree roots, etc. To this peak load is also sometimes added the additional loading associated with the occasional buildup of a berm or bow wave of earth in front of the advancing scraper blade, particularly when handling what is commonly called sugar sand. As a result, a scraper having sufficient motive power for the scraping and loading operation is usually grossly over-powered for the subsequent rolling operation as the earth is conveyed to the unloading or dumping. area.` Conversely, a scraper powered forV the rolling operation, is grossly underpowered for the scraping and loading operation.

To cope with this problem, the earth-moving industry has attempted various approaches. Where a number of Scrapers are being used on a single project, a single tractor, adequate for the rolling operation, would be employed with a single or, more usually, a plurality of Scrapers operating in tandem. An extra tractor or tractors at the scraping site would be hooked or otherwise attached to the scraper-tractor combination to provide adequate power during the scraping and loading operation. Upon completion of the scraping and loading operation, the extra tractor would be unhooked and held in readiness for attachment to another scraper which has returned from the unloading area. This approach suffers from the fact that it does not lend itself to small construction sites wherein only a single or only a few Scrapers are employed, Moreover, the peak power required is still the sum of the power required for loading, rolling, and sometimes for pushing a bow wave of sugar sand.

Another approach has been to lock the wheels of the tractor momentarily and devote all of the power to the movement of the scraper section, including the scraper wheels and cutting blade. This has resulted in some improvement but still only a portion of the power is applied to the cutting blade itself and much of the remainder is required for moving the scraper wheels. In the case of rough terrain, sugar sand, or the like, the power required for movement of the scraper wheels is still a substantial proportion of the total power.

hired tat atnt I tremity by means of upstanding arms which are pivotally` It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a novel design for carry-type Scrapers which is free of the aforementioned shortcomings and will improve the operating flexibility of such Scrapers and decrease the cost of earth-moving operations.

More specifically, it is an object of the present invention to provide a carry-type scraper wherein the peak power requirements are minimized.

lt is a further object of the present invention to provide a carry-type scraper wherein the maximum power required is the power required for scraping exclusive of the power required for rolling, or for rolling exclusive of the power required for scraping, whichever is the greater, rather than the sum of the two.

llt is `a still further object of the present invention to provide a unique carry-type scraper vehicle wherein substantially all of the power associated therewith may be applied to the scraper blade itself.

- It is a still further object of the present invention to provide a design for a carry-type scraper wherein the bowl `and associated scraper blade may be advanced under fullV power independently of and Without movement of any of the associated supporting Wheels, including those of the pulling tractor.

, It is a still further object of the present invention to provide a carry-type scraper vehicle wherein full power may be applied to the scraper blade in such a manner as to impart thereto a desired undulating forward movement.

These and other objects 0f the present invention will become apparent as detailed description thereof proceeds.

To achieve these objects, a unique carry-type scraper vehicle is provided which comprises a frame; a power source for supplying motive power to the vehicle, said power source having power take-off means such Vas Vcable take-up drums; a plurality of travel supporting means, eg., wheels, for said frame and said power source, each of the travel supporting means having braking means, e.g., conventional friction brakes; and a body including a bowl portion with downwardly-depending cutting means, e.g., a scraper blade, said body being movably mounted on the frame and operatively connected to the power take-off means whereby substantially all of the power from the power source may be applied to the body independently of the wheels when the brakes are locked, so as to move the body forward relative to the frame. Y

When carrying out loading operations with the improved carry-type vehicle of the present invention, the tractor and scraper are propelled forward until the rolling and scraping power requirements exceed the capacity ofV the tractor, thus bringing it to a standstill, usually, for example, when the scraper blade strikes an obstruction. All wheels are then locked, and full power of the tractor is solely applied via a power take-olf drum and cable system to the movement of the body forward within the f rame of the scraper, thus usually overcoming the obstruction. Once overcome, the normal scraping operation may be resumed, i.e., brakes are unlocked and power is again applied to normal propulsion of the scraper vehicle.

The desired undulating forward movement of the scraper blade is readily and preferably achieved in the present invention by mounting the body adjacent one exsupported on the frame and adjacentl the other extremity by an overhead cable system. Aside from imparting un` dulating movement, such mounting means is also desirable from the standpoint of simplicity and economy of constructionV and operation.

While the present invention may be used in connection with a single scraper and tractor, it is equally applicable to a plurality of scraperspoperated tandem fashion andl aoaneaa tion particularly lends itself to tandem Scrapers. Specifically', when the brakes of all the wheels of a tandem scraper are locked, additional anchor points are thus provided for therframe when full power is applied to one of the bowls for forward motion thereof with respect to the frame.

The present invention will be more clearly understood from the following detailed description read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIGURE 1 is an elevation view of a scraper-tractor combination employing the improved design of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a top view of the scraper-tractor combination of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is an exploded schematic view of the cable assembly employed to impart motion to the body and bowl relative to the frame;

FIG. 4 is an enlarged cut-away view of one of the rear wheels of the scraper and shows one of the upstanding arms on which the scraper body is pivotally supported, and also the braking mechanism;

FIG. 5 is a simplified schematic side elevational View or" the scraper vehicle of the present invention just prior to the actuation of the mechanism which moves the body with respect to the frame; and

FIG. 6 is similar to FIG. S but shows the body of the vehicle after being moved forwardly relative to the frame.

For simplicity in the aforementioned figures, some nonesscntial detail has been omitted. Further, in several instances where a particular detail is shown in one figure, it is not necessarily duplicated in another gure.

Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2 together, the carry-type scraper vehicle of the present invention comprises a scraper frame 10 which is propelled by tractor 11, said tractor having a plurality of power take-olf drums (not shown), one of which is attached to cable 12. As will become apparent hereinafter, cable 12 is the cable means by which body 9 (also referred to as bowl 9) of the tractor vehicle is moved with respect to frame 10. Frame 16 and tractor 11 are supported by wheel assemblies 13, 14, 15 and 16. As will be apparent when FIG. 4 is considered, each of the aforesaid wheel assemblies has braking means, e.g., conventional friction brakes.

Body 9 of the scraper comprises bowl sides 17 with side extension 18 (for channeling the earth being scraped) and bowl bottom 19, said bowl bottom 19 having a downwardly depending cutting means, c g., scraper blade 20 with substantially horizontal cutting edge. To the upper portion of bowl sides 17 is secured, usually by welding, supporting horizontal channel beams 21 and 22, on which ride the supporting rollers, including rollers 23 through 28, for the back portion 29 of body 9. Supporting rollers 23 through 28 (and other rollers not shown) are housed in traveling housings 30 and 31, which also house side-sway rollers 32 through 35. Traveling housings 30 and 31 are pivotally attached, respectively, to linkages 36 and 37, which in turn support, via cross member 38, the upwardly-movable front 39 of the bowl. Linkages 36 and 37 are also pivotally secured, respectively, to second linkages 40 and 41, which in turn are pivotally secured to the sides of the bowl via fixed linkages 42 and 43, respectively.

As is apparent from the geometry of the scraper, the aforesaid linkages constitute a dead-center system such that under normal operation there is substantially no movement of the back 29 of bowl 9 with respect to the front 39 of bowl 9. When, however, the dead center system is broken by the simple expedient of raising linkages 36 and 37 by taking up cable 44, which is secured at one extremity to extension 45 of cross member 38 and at the other extremity via a pulley support 46 to a power take-oit drum (not shown) on tractor 11. Thus, when it is desired to dump load 47 from the scraper, the dead center system is broken as just described, and a cable system (not shown) draws side housings 30 and 31 and back 29 toward the front 39. As back 29 approaches front 39, the front is raised upwardly so that load 47 is forced out of the scraper via the opening resulting from the upward displacement of the front. Since the present invention is not specific to any particular bowl dumping or ejection system and since such ejection systems are well known to those skilled in the art, further detailed description thereof is omitted.

Body 9 is supported on frame 10 at the rear extremity, pivotally, by means of upstanding arms 48 and 49, and at the forward extremity, in suspension by means of overhead cable 50 (shown only in FIG. l), which is secured to the bowl at point 51. Cable S0 in turn passes over pulley support 52 (also shown only in FIG. 1) and then to a conventional power takeof drum (not shown) of tractor 11.

It is apparent that by taking up on cable 50 the body will be pivoted upwards around the Vupper pivot points 48a and 49a of upstanding arms 48 and 49, respectively. It is also apparent that when in accordance with the present invention the body is moved forward with respect to the frame, it will be subjected to a slight undulating motion depending on the arcs through which pass cable contact point 51 at the forward extremity of the body and the upper pivot points 48a and 49a of upstanding arms 4S and 49, respectively, at the rear extremity of the body.

It is further apparent from the geometry of the bodysupporting system that the type of undulating motion can be varied by choice. For example, if it is desired that point 51 be raised slightly as the body is moved forward with respect to the frame, the position of contact point 51 with respect to the overhead pulley on pulley support 52 is adjusted such that cable 50 is vertical when the body is in its most rearward position with respect to the frame, i.e., its normal position. Similarly, should it be desired to lower point 51 whenever the body is moved forward with respect to the frame, then the angle of cable 50 with respect to the vertical is adjusted such that when the body is advanced to its most forward position, the angle of cable 50 approaches the vertical, but never passes beyond the vertical. As shown in FIG. l, the angle of cable 50 is such that as the body is moved forward within the frame, point S1 is gradually lowered until cable 50 reaches the vertical and then point 51 is raised as cable 50 passes beyond vertical.

It is also apparent from the geometry of the system that a variety of undulating movements may also be imparted to the upper pivot points 48a and 49a of arms 48 and 49, respectively, by similar adjustment of the angle of arms 48 and 49 with respect to the vertical. In practice, the angles of cable 50 and upstanding arms 4S and 49 with respect to the vertical are adjusted so as to obtain the desired combination of undulating movements at these points as dictated by the needs of the particular scraping operation. For example, when the obstructing material has a hard and/or brittle surface layer, the angle of cable 50 may be as shown in FIG. l, but upstanding arms 43 and 49 may be vertical, when the body is in its normal position. Thus, when full power is applied to movement of the body with respect to the frame, in accordance with the present invention, the scraper blade will initially be lowered slightly beneath-the obstructing surface and then be slightly raised or tilted upwards during the latter part of the movement as cable 50 passes beyond thevertical. The resulting lifting elect of the movement tends to fracture more readily the hard and/or brittle surface layer.

In addition to varying the direction of the undulating movement, the magnitude thereof may also be varied v substantially by the simple expedient of varying the lengths of arms 48 and 49 and/or cable 50. Likewise, overhead suspension cables may be substituted for upstandingy arms 48 and 49, thus further increasing the.

variety of undulating movements which may be selected.

Such expedients are, in the light of the present disclosure, Within the skill of the art without further elaboration.

The body is preferably moved forward with respect to the frame by means of a cable and pulley system shown in FIGS. l and 2, and, for greater clarity, in an exploded View, FIG. 3. Referring to FIGS. 1, 2 and 3 together, the entire power of the tractor may be applied to the forward movement of the body with respect to the frame via cable 12, which at its forward end is attached to a conventional cable take-up drum (not shown) on tractor 11 and passes via a series of direction-changing pulleys 55, S6, 57 and 58 to the rear of the scraper, wherein it passes into pulley holders 59 and 60, said pulley holders supporting pulleys 61, 62, 63, and 64. Cable 12 is xedly secured to pulley frame 59 at point 65. While pulley holders 59 and 60 are represented as having 4 pulleys attached thereto, i.e., 61 through 64. it should be understood that pulley holders 59 and 60 may house a smaller number or, more usually, a larger number of pulleys so as to decrease or increase the mechanical advantage of the pulley system, respectively.

It is apparent that when cable 12 is taken up on a cable take-up drum on tractor 11, pulley holders 59 and 60 are drawn together. As a result, cable sections 66 and 67, which are secured, respectively, to pulley housings 59 and 60 and which pass around direction changing pulleys 68'and 69, 7) and 71, respectively, will force cable attachment points 72 and 73 forward, as indicated by the arrowheads on FIG. 3. Since pulleys 68, 69, 70 and 71 are fixedly secured to the frame and since cable attachment points 72 and 73 are fixedly secured to the body, it is apparent that as cable 12 is taken up by the cable take-up drums, the body will be moved forward with respect to the frame. The distance which the body moves depends, of course, on the size of the scraper vehicle itself and the particular mechanical design of the cable and suspension system. For satisfactory operation, it should be possible to move the body at least about 6 inches with respect to the frame. Preferably, the forward motion should be at least about 1 foot and may range up to 3 feet or more.

It is an essential feature of the present invention that all wheels of the scraper or Scrapers and the tractor are locked so as to provide the maximum number of anchor points during the period when the body is being moved forward with respect to the frame. The wheels may be locked by any known means, e.g., conventional friction brakes. FIG. 4 suggests such conventional braking as applied to wheel assembly 13. Wheel assembly 13 is mounted on axle 75, which in turn is supported by frame 10. Upstanding support 48 for the body is also pivotally mounted on axle 75 at point 48h. Wheel assembly 13 is locked with respect to the frame by the conventional technique of forcing brake band 76, which is mounted on fixed support 77, against brake drum 7S. Brake band 76 may be actuated by any known braking system, including mechanical, hydraulic, or air systems.

The braking effect of the wheels may optionally be supplemented by other anchor means (not shown), e.g., substantially rigid members which extend downwardly usually from the frame, and are driven into the earth just prior to actuation of the cable system. After actuation, the rigid members are retracted from the earth so that the frame can again be moved.

Operation of the scraper vehicle of the present invention is schematically suggested by FIGS. 5 and 6. FIG. 5 portrays the stalled scraper vehicle just prior to actuation of the previously-described cable system. FIG. 6 portrays the same scraper vehicle after actuation of the cable system, whereby the body is moved forward with respect to the frame. As aforementioned, all wheels of the tractor and scraper must be locked prior to actuation of the cable system which moves the body forward. Furthermore, if a second scraper is operated in tandem with the first scraper, as suggested by support 8G of the second scraper, which is mounted on balland-socket type support 81 of the first scraper, the supporting wheels of the second scraper are also locked prior to actuation of the cable system which moves the body of the first scraper forward with respect to its frame.

The second scraper may also include the novel design features of the present invention so that the body thereof my also be moved with respect to the frame. In practice, when operating with tandem scrapers, the full power of the tractor is applied individually, and usually successively, to each of the scraper bodies, rather than splitting the full power between the respective bodies. The cable system for the tandem scraper may be essentially the same as that for the first scraper, except, of course, for the fact that the actuating cable would pass from a drum on the tractor to the tandem or second scraper via a number of supporting and directionchanging pulleys on the first scraper. Such a cable system, in the light of the above disclosure, is well within the skill of the art.

From the above detailed description, it is apparent that the objects of this invention have been achieved. Specifically, the peak power requirements have been minimized and smoothed out. Thus, the maximum power required is the peak power required for scraping exclusive of rolling, or for rolling exclusive of scraping, whichever is the greater. This contrasts with the prior art wherein the peak power was the summation of the two requirements. This unique feature results from the fact that the novel design of the present scraper vehicle permits the intermittent application of the entire power to the scraper blade itself. This is accomplished, as previously described, by locking all of the supporting wheels and applying full power via a cable system to the body, including the bowl and scraper blade. Furthermore, the suspension system for the body is such that when the body is moved forward, it has a desirable undulating movement, which materially improves the digging and/ or scraping action of the scraper blade. Quite aside from the aforementioned advantages attributable to the present invention, particularly the smoothing out of the imbalance in power requirements, still other advantages result. For example, even if an excess of power were available to meet all demands, i.e., the peak scraping, loading, rolling, and bow wave loads, the scraper vehicle may still be limited by the tractive effort associated with the driving wheels. The tractive effort of the driving wheels is, of course, a function of the weight on .the driving wheels and the coefficient of friction between the driving wheels and ground. With the scraper vehicle of the present invention, however, the total effective tractive effort when all wheels are locked and power is applied to move the body with respect to the frame is the sum of anchoring efforts associated with not only the driving wheels but also all of the locked wheels of the scraper vehicle. Thus, the scraper vehicle of the present invention has the additional advantage of providing a means of increasing the total power which can be effectively applied to the movement of the scraper body.

ln actual operations, therefore, the scraper vehicle is driven forward into the borrow pit until it is stalled, either because the total load exceeds the available power and thus the driving wheels cant be rotated further or because the total load exceeds the tractive effort associated with the driving wheels, in which case the driving wheels are left spinning. The design of the scraper vehicle of the present invention is capable of solving either problern, and, in either case the scraper vehicle can be moved forward with a sort of shuttling action, i.e., first lock the wheels, then move the body forward, then unlock the wheels and move the frame forward, then again lock the wheels, and keep repeating the cycle until the body is fully loaded.

While the present invention has been described in connection with certain specic embodiments thereof, it

should be understood, of course, that the invention is not limited thereto. For example, the rafore-descril'aed cable system is just by way of illustrating one means for transmitting power from the tractor to the body or bowl. Other systems such as the employment of hydraulic uids may also be utilized to accomplish this result. Many other alternative modiiications of the present invention will be apparent from the above description to those skilled in the art, and such modifications are considered within the spirit and scope of the present invention.

Having thus described the invention, what is claimed 1. A carry-type scraper vehicle comprising a frame; a power source for supplying motive power to the vehicle, said power source having power take-oft means; a plurality of travel supporting means for supporting said power source and also said frame adjacent the forward and rearward extremities of said frame, the travel supporting means supporting said power source and said frame and being rotatably secured thereto, respectively, each of said travel supporting means having braking means; and a body including a bowl portion with downward-depending cutting means, said body including the bowl portion thereof being longitudinally movably and pivotally mounted on said frame between the travel supporting means adjacent the forward and rearward extremities of said frame and operatively connected to said power take-oft" means whereby substantially all of the power from said power source may be applied to said body independently of, and without movement of, said plurality of travel supporting means, so as to move said body substantially horizontally relative to said frame and said plurality of travel supporting means.

2. The carry-type scraper vehicle of claim l wherein said body is operatively connected to said power take-off means by a cable assembly.

3. The carry-type scraper vehicle of claim 1 including supporting means interconnecting said body and said frame whereby an undulating motion is imparted to said body as it is moved relative to said frame.

4. The carry-type scraper vehicle of claim 1 wherein said body is movably mounted on said frame 'oy a combination of upstanding arms pivotally mounted on the frame adjacent one extremity and an overhead cable assembly adjacent the other extremity, whereby an undulating motion is imparted to said body as it is moved substantially horizontally relative to said frame.v

5. The carry-type scraper vehicle of claim 1 wherein said power taire-oitL means includes cable take-up drums, said travel supporting means are wheels, said braking means are friction brakes, and said cutting means, is a cutting blade with a substantially horizontal cutting edge.

6. A carry-type scraper vehicle comprising a frame; a power source for supplying motive power to the vehicle,

said power source having power take-olf means; a plurality of travel supporting means for supporting said power source and also said frame adjacent the forward and rearward extremities of said frame, the travel supporting means supporting said power source and said frame and being rotatably secured thereto, respectively, each of said travel supporting means having braking means; and a body including a bowl portion with downward-depending cutting means, said body including the bowl portion thereof being longitudinally movably and pivotally mounted on said frame between the travel supporting means adjacent the forward and rearward cX- tremities of said frame by a combination comprising upstanding arms pivotally mounted on said frame adjacent one extremity of said frame and an overhead cable assembly adjacent the other extremity of said frame, said body also being operatively connected to said power take-off means, whereby substantially all of the power from said power source may be applied to said body independently of, and without movement of, said plurality of travel supporting means, so as to move said body substantially horizontally relative to said frame and said plurality of travel supporting means.

7. The carry-type scraper vehicle of claim 6 wherein said body is operatively connected to said power take-off means by a cable assembly, said power take-off means includes cable take-up drums, said travel supporting means are wheels, said braking means are friction brakes, and said cutting means, is a cutting blade with substantially horizontal cutting edge.

8. A carry-type scraper vehicle comprising a scraper frame supported by brakeable wheels rotatably secured adjacent one extremity thereof; a tractor supported by brakeable wheels, said tractor being operatively connected so as to impart motion to said frame, said tractor also having power take-off means, the brakeable wheels of said tractor also supporting the other extremity of said frame; a scraper body including a bowl portion with downward-depending cutting means, said body including the, bowl portion thereof being longitudinally movably and pivotally mounted on said scraper frame between the brakeable wheels of said frame and said tractor and operatively connected to said power take-off means whereby substantially all of the power from said tractor may be applied to said body when said wheels of said scraper frame and said tractor are bralred, so as to move said body substantially horizontally relative to said frame and said wheels of said scraper frame and said tractor.

References Cited in the le of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,557,770 Parrish Oct. 20, 1925 2,154,503 French et al Apr. 18, 1939 2,447,455 Allin Aug. 17, 1948 2,490,310 Le Tourneau Dec. 6, 1949 2,505,202 Peterson Apr. 25, 1950 2,528,550 Robb Nov. 7, 1950 2,573,720 Lichtenberg Nov. 6, 1951 2,648,920 Anderson Aug. 18, 1953 2,820,555 Lessmann Jan. 21, 1958 

